READIN

Tuesday, June 16th, 2020

🦋 Relativity

posted afternoon of June 16th, 2020: Respond
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Wednesday, July 8th, 2015

🦋 Escher animated

(plus look!)

posted evening of July 8th, 2015: 2 responses

Thursday, March 6th, 2014

🦋 Selfie

posted evening of March 6th, 2014: Respond

Monday, April 15th, 2013

🦋 Escher Highway

Erik Johansson

posted evening of April 15th, 2013: Respond

Saturday, March 5th, 2011

🦋 One piece seems to have gone missing

Ellen and Sylvia gave me a lovely jigsaw puzzle for Valentine's Day -- an unusual puzzle in that the edges were the hardest part to assemble. Most puzzles, I do the edge first, then fill in the middle; with this one, I had to start with some of the easy-to-recognize bits in the middle and work outward. The puzzle sat for a week or more with everything complete except for the edges (and, well, except for that annoyingly lost piece in the middle there)... You can click the photo to see a few in-progress pics.

posted morning of March 5th, 2011: Respond
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Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

🦋 Bright Stupid Confetti

Today at Paul Habeeb's Latest Research, I find a link to the site of Jim Kazanjian -- whose otherworldly photography makes me think of nothing so much as of Escher, as if Escher had come back to life and gotten himself a digital camera and a graphics workstation...
So, wow; that is nice to know about. But on a whim I follow Mr. Habeeb's via link, to Christopher Higgs' journal bright stupid confetti -- and find myself overwhelmed by the insane quantity of beautiful, interesting pictures -- paintings, photography, posters... surrealistic videos... lectures on poetry (in English) by Borges... I'm pretty much blown away by this site.

Update: More info about Jim Kazanjian at artistaday.com, where he was profiled last month.

posted evening of January 27th, 2010: 2 responses

Thursday, September 11th, 2008

🦋 Twin Towers

Kathy's inaugural post at The Edge of the American West makes me wonder how much of the relevant history Sylvia knows about. I don't believe we've talked about it at any length with her; but she has made references to it. Maybe we should go over it some, she's getting old enough. (The events took place just a few days after we had come home from China.)

Not sure if it's a coincidence or what; but on this day, on this date, I find myself wanting to post some tower imagery. Below the fold for more.

Today, the NY Times prints some before (1978) and after (2008) pictures of the World Trade Center, shot from various perspectives:

In 1928, M.C. Escher painted a Tower of Babel. It does not have the errors of logic that I have been conditioned to expect seeing in an Escher painting. It is very beautiful:

And hundreds of years before that, Pieter Brueghel the Elder painted his own twin towers:

(Oh and let's not forget number 16 of the major arcana! Thanks Ms. Pamela Colman Smith.)

↻...done

posted afternoon of September 11th, 2008: Respond
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Saturday, December first, 2007

🦋 Spurious associations...

...and random thoughts while watching Aguirre, the Wrath of God.

• I wonder if anyone has made note of how strongly (if memory serves) Richard O'Brian's character in The Rocky Horror Picture Show resembles Klaus Kinski. Wonder if that was a conscious choice by the Rocky Horror people. Seriously, when the camera came in close on Aguirre standing next to the river, I thought Oh my God, it's Riff Raff!
• Aguirre's first appearance in the movie, talking to (I think?) Pizarro, they reminded me of Tintin and Captain Haddock a little bit, which was amusing.
• This movie has the dreamlike atmosphere that pervades some of my very favorite works of art, like e.g. Gravity's Rainbow -- indeed I think this is a movie that could have been very competently produced by some of Pynchon's characters.
• The brilliant, brilliant title sequence makes me think of nothing so much as Escher's paintings. I keep thinking Wow, I didn't know you could do that with film.
• The soundtrack might be the best movie soundtrack ever. At least the best in some subcategory of motion picture soundtracks. From the church music at the beginning, to the piper, to Perucho's threatening hums and hisses... It is in the substance of the film, it complements and enhances the imagery. Perfect.

'Minimalist' is, it seems to me, the best category of foreign language film, the most fun for me to watch because there is some chance I will catch the dialogue. And indeed, here I find I am getting a lot of it (with help from the subtitles).

One thing that really turned me on about this movie was the mix of different influences and realities -- like the characters were Spanish but speaking German, they were dressed in period costume but their makeup and hair and general bearing seemed much more contemporary. Etcetera.

posted afternoon of December first, 2007: 3 responses
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